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1. Descendents, "I'm Not a Loser" (1982)
Pop punk's original angsty nerd bros are coming through town this week, grayer and assuredly wiser than when they wrote this 90-second rant against the rich pricks at their high school that swerves, out of nowhere, into virulent gay-bashing. It's been stricken from their set list, but don't worry—their many songs about being nice guys who never get the sex they think they deserve remain.
2. Minor Threat, "Guilty of Being White" (1981)
White privilege is a difficult concept for many Americans to grasp, so perhaps we shouldn't drag teenage Ian MacKaye too hard for not understanding why he must shoulder the weight of atrocities committed "a hundred years before I was born." But a white kid with a shaved head shouting, "You blame me for slavery!" still doesn't scan well three decades later.
3. Sex Pistols, "Bodies" (1977)
In which John Lydon punksplains the horrors of abortion via the gruesome story of a mental patient named Pauline. It's not explicitly pro-life—the guy who declared "I am an Antichrist" couldn't possibly believe life begins at conception, right?—but it's not terribly empathetic, either.
4. The Misfits, "Last Caress" (1980)
Granted, the Misfits' depictions of violence were always too cartoonish to truly scandalize anyone other than Midwestern church ladies, but such a gleeful celebration of rape and baby-killing would certainly get them banned from college campuses were it released today.
5. Patti Smith, "Rock N Roll Nigger" (1978)
To be fair, Smith was trying to reclaim the epithet for all nonconformists living outside society's bounds. But nah, Patti. Nah.
SEE IT: Descendents play Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., with Bully and Broadway Calls, on Saturday, Nov. 12. 8 pm. Sold out. All ages.
Willamette Week